Every business will develop different tactics to help them get the edge from their competitors. They can do it in a number of ways such as improving the overall aesthetic of their store theme, holding bi-monthly discounts and sales, or even using artists to promote their products. There is one method that not a lot of people know about and that is by using mystery shoppers.
This might be a new term for many, but it is a well-known technique used by many businesses trying to sell their products. You can technically say that a mystery shopper goes “undercover” and visits a competitor’s store to inspect, observe, and report on other store employees and customers.
What Does a Mystery Shopper Exactly Do?
You can find that most third-party or independent vendors would use this tactic. They hire every day consumers to purchase and come up with a detailed report of their experience with another store competitor. Mystery shoppers have one job and that is to be like any other customer. They can eat, buy clothes, hire their services, return items, and any other activity that a normal customer would do.
Usually, mystery shoppers are hired not to give their opinions about the competitor, but to evaluate a business and their employees from a customer’s point of view. They can collect any form of data that will be relevant to the vendors. You can spot a mystery shopper if they try to do more observation of everything around the store apart from the products or services. In some cases, the vendors may ask the mystery shoppers to act as a “difficult” customer so that they can determine how they usually deal with one.
The vendor may task the mystery shopper to do several things and relay the information back to them:
• The way they greet their customers when they enter and exit the store
• The number of employees on each floor or section of the store
• Names of the employees the mystery shopper interacts with
• How quickly they made their service available when you requested for it
• If store employees asked you to return to the store or sign-up for credit accounts, mailing lists, etc.
• The overall cleanliness and maintenance of the store
• How the employees groom themselves and what style of clothing they have that represents the store’s brand
Learn the ins and outs of a mystery shopper and how much they earn every job.
How Much Does a Mystery Shopper Get Paid?
Most mystery shoppers that vendors hire get paid for every job they do, not by the hour. For simple assignments tasked to them, they can earn between $8 to $10. If the task gets more complicated, they can possibly earn anywhere from $20 to $100, or even more. There are also instances where they do not get paid, but reimbursed for the products or services they spent from the competitor’s store.
If you want to earn quick and clean money, you should try becoming a mystery shopper. There are many who are frequent mystery shoppers to the point that they are experts at it.
